Part 1: What are human rights and why do we need them?

Notions of human rights derive from innate, fundamental ideas of freedom and responsibility.  The fact that ancient societies kept slaves and enforced penalties against runaway slaves did not diminish the universal, innate human desire to be free. But until the 18th century, slavery was a fact of life. Human beings were captured, bartered, bought, and sold to provide cheap labor for economic production.

In the history of Western civilization, the idea that slavery was immoral did not emerge as political issues until the time of Wilberforce in England. His own evangelical Christian faith, as well as the moral teachings of Quaker founder George Fox, influenced Wilberforce’s affiliation with the abolitionist movement. Despite his fame as an orator, Wilberforce’s proposals to end slavery were slow to be passed by Parliament. Powerful economic interests and a war with France in 1793 prevented passage of Wilberforce’s legislation, but his advocacy opened the way for laws requiring humane treatment of slaves. Finally, after years of debate in Parliament and widespread public support, the British government abolished slavery in 1807.

Across the English Channel in 1789, the National Assembly adopted the French Revolution’s most fundamental document, La Déclaration de l’Homme et du Citoyen (The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen), whose first article insisted that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” The philosophical and moral theories of Thomas Hobbes influenced the formation of French republican ideals through translations and further development by Jean-Jacque Rousseau and other prominent Enlightenment thinkers. The ideas of Hobbes and also John Locke had an important impact on the formation of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of U.S. constitutional documents, served as U.S. Ambassador to France and consulted on drafts of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Its similarity to the U.S. Bill of Rights is no accident. Although neither the French nor the U.S. declarations mentioned slavery nor the rights of women, both documents had an enormous impact on the spread of democratic governments and constitutions around the world. Early nationalist movements in Latin America modeled their own constitutions on the French and U.S. documents.

For a good overview of this history, see Paul Lauren’s “Visions and the Birth of Human Rights.”

It would be a disservice to the profound weight of these two landmarks if we did not appreciate their importance in the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948.

While the development of democracy owes much to the theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, it is important to understand the impact of popular essayist and journalist Thomas Paine. With the help of Benjamin Franklin, Paine emigrated from England to Philadelphia in 1774. Paine’s explosive book The Rights of Man was first published in Boston in 1791. After the American Revolution, Paine returned to England, where the British crown declared him a traitor. He left England for France in 1792.

The compete texts of the U.S and French declarations of rights are included below. We also read the U.N. declaration and information on several international courts. Be sure to review some of the writings of Thomas Paine.

Assignment: Study both French and U.S. documents carefully before you read the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights. Look at online articles on Thomas Paine. Read the chapter by Paul Lauren through the link above.